A Study Of Wang Tong-ling’s General History Of China

Under the historical background of the invasion of Western powers and the eastward spread of Western learning in modern times,compiling a new type of general history of China is not only an urgent need of the times,but also a conscious academic pursuit of the historians of the Republic of China.Wang Tong-ling’s General history of China is a representative new type of Chinese general history work in the 1920 s.It more comprehensively practiced the basic proposition of "new historiography" : in terms of historical view,the evolutionary view of history introduced from the West replaced the cyclical view of history.believes that the development of Chinese history is constantly moving forward;in terms of historical perspective and research methods,General history of China has a relatively broad field of historical research,often examining China’s historical process from a world perspective,and at the same time absorbing the historical and geographical research at that time.The academic achievements of the Confucianism show the characteristics of interdisciplinary research;in the writing of ethnic history,the development process of each ethnic group is described in more detail,and it is pointed out that the competition and integration of various ethnic groups "created today’s huge China";in the scope of the description In the past,General History of China practiced the new historiography’s idea of attaching importance to "people’s history",changed the old historiography’s emphasis on "monarch history" and focused on political history,and contained a wealth of social history content,which greatly broke through traditional historiography.In terms of writing style,General History of China integrates the traditional chronicle and modern chapters,providing a formal guarantee for the rich and diverse historical content.In a word,the practice of "new historiography" and the criticism of old historiography in "History of China" were not only influenced by Liang Qichao’s "new historiography" thought,but also the inevitable result of Wang Tong-ling’s study in Japan and Western historiography.On the one hand,it was compiled for modern historians.The new general history of China provides a relatively successful example,and on the other hand is a useful attempt to modernize Chinese historiography.